Belka

If she put original stuff up on YouTube she would probably get very few views, unless, ironically given the nature of this thread, she was performing slap pyrotechnics on the bass. How many original YouTube videos demonstrating how 'less is more' get millions of hits? From interviews with musicians, with the decline of music sales and especially recently with lockdown restrictions curbing live music, I've learnt that for many, YouTube has become an essential income stream, so I say more power to any musician who's making money from their videos. Also, I would definitely describe her playing here as creative. She takes the original bassline and never departs from its main structure, but puts in lots of embellishments, all appropriate in terms of timing and the song's harmony - that's certainly creative in my opinion. It's a little bit off topic but generally the more you transcribe and practise, the more creative you'll get. I don't think that many musicians are born creative, although there are differing levels of talent.

There is definitely a big difference between vintage pickups and modern reproductions of '50s, '60s and '70s pickups. In my opinion, although things like hand winding/scatter wound, and the exact composition of the AlNiCo 5 magnets makes a difference, the main factor is that most modern repros are wound a lot hotter than the originals, with more resistance. Pretty much all Duncan, Fralin, Lollar, Novak, Wizard, Fender etc. 'vintage' jazz pickups are wound at around 8-10k ohm resistance. In the early '60s, I think Jazz pickups typically measured between 7-8k, and by the '70s 6-6.5k was pretty standard. I can understand why modern pickups are wound hotter - imagine spending £200 on a set of vintage reproduction pickups, installing them in your bass, and discovering that you've lost 30-40% of your output volume - the builders would be inundated with returns and it wouldn't be a viable business. However, low output means a smoother, less middy sound with more sparkle to the highs and a detail to the sound that modern pickups don't seem to get. To be fair, I think Aguilar wind their '60s and '70s vintage pickups at around 7.5k, and Fralin also offers underwound as well as overwound pickups, which while not known nearly as much as the overwound, are likely to be far more authentic. I focused on Jazz pickups as I think Precisions are a bit closer to the originals - they're wound in series and so were always higher in output than Jazz pickups anyway.

About a year ago I ab'd a '74 reissue next to a couple of real '70s jazzes (a '72 and a '78). The reissue had better build quality than the '72 (although it could have been down to wear and tear), although surprising given their reputation the '78 seemed to be very well built. Soundwise, the real '70s basses sounded very different. Whether they were better or not is subjective. In my opinion modern pickups, even reissue '60s and '70s one, are all wound hotter to give higher output. I understand that dealing with low output/resistance pickups may be a pain for modern players, who expect a certain level of output, but as a result they all tend to sound middier, without the sparkle in the highs you get from vintage pickups.

It seems nobody hates slap more than bass players. I'd imagine in the guitar world you get guitarists 'hating' tapping or sweep picking for the same reason. Or drummers who 'hate' double kick drum playing. Do any of the bassists here who hate slap also hate tapping and sweep picking on guitar, or double bass drum patterns, or does the fact that it's not actually done on bass mean you don't have that intimate emotional connection with those styles?

Fair enough, but at the end of the day, you say he was a young guy - I don't think there are many people out there who are initially attracted to playing an instrument who understand the bigger picture. I started playing guitar (I lasted a year before I switched to bass) because I thought Hendrix playing behind his head and making feedback sounds was cool. If someone has the talent and will, listens to a range of music and practises properly, they will move out of the flashy phase and take the instrument more seriously.

I think Davie 504 gets treated a bit unfairly around here - he's a great player with a very good ear, and some of his videos are quite creative - the bass with no strings one is great. If he's getting young kids into knowing what a bass is and how cool it can sound I think that can only be a good thing, and will hopefully lead to some of them picking up the bass. Yes, it's clickbaity, but that is the way of Youtube unfortunately, Scott Devine is a very serious educator, and even he has to make clickbaity sounding videos to maximise exposure. It's not like he's claiming to be a serious educator or forcing anyone to play machine gun percussive triplet slap over Mustang Sally, it's just a bit of fun. Perhaps we could encourage Davie to make videos that might go down better over here.... 99.88% CAN'T tell what WOOD my bass is made of!!!!! I change my FLATWOUNDS for the FIRST TIME EVER!!!!! He says his WHITE pickguard has more MOJO than my TORT pickguard??????????? TRACE ELLIOT watts are 1000% HEFTIER than class D watts!!!!

I think you need to give Victor Wooten a good listen - Mark King is far more guilty of tuneless clicking (and I do really like Mark King and Level 42) than Wooten - there's a lot more harmonic and melodic interest in what Wooten plays, although I admit that the fact a lot of it is solo bass without a band may put people off.

Way back in 1998 I visited San Jose in California, and in a bar I saw a band with a bassist who had a '70s Jazz. When I went to have a talk with him after the gig he claimed that the bass he was using had belonged to Bernard Edwards. Of course, he could have been telling porkies, but he was a rocker and not really into funk/disco so I don't think he would have any reason to pick Bernard over any other player. My memory is a bit hazy but I think it was a sunburst with a rosewood fingerboard, blocks and binding.

I kind of agree. I can also imagine that in certain genres (speed metal if that is still a thing) it's the kind of question you may be asked if auditioning for a band. Also, I remember reading an interview with Mike Pope when he was subbing for Patitucci on the Chick Corea Elektric band. They opened the set with 'Got a match', which is 16th notes moving at 150 BPM with a fairly complex fingering pattern, doubling the keyboard melody . I'm guessing that if he couldn't have done that, Mike Pope wouldn't have got the gig. I suppose that's a kind of extreme example though as it's pretty much the outer limit of what is possible to play.

Thanks for sharing this. I always thought there was some kind of chorusing on this track and now I understand why. It’s really interesting the lengths people went to back then to get good sounds - it’s a lost art with plugins these days.

Mixed opinions - I took a bass up there to have an issue looked at with their tech. The email communication in advance of my visit was super efficient and friendly, but when I arrived I didn't feel welcome at all - was actually asked 'why are you here?'. The tech they had was friendly and dealt with the issues, and I enjoyed talking to Mark when I met him - he's certainly knowledgeable. When the bass was fixed, I asked if I could play it through an amp to make sure the issue was resolved for myself - was told 'why would you want to do that - I already checked it?', although in the end, begrudgingly, they let me do so. It's a great shop and despite the issues I would buy from them if they had something I wanted, but it was a weird experience. I always enjoy visiting the Gallery and have found everyone there extremely helpful and approachable, and Wunjo are also very good, and therefore I would always use them ahead of Bass Direct (unless it was something I couldn't find elsewhere). It's a shame they can't sort out their customer service - I really want shops like that to succeed as they have such great stuff but I can see why some people would never use them again.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/guitar-hard-case-for-bass-or-guitar-/1394881014 https://www.gumtree.com/profile/accounts/1b8724625a0e9b167460f7e15574815e He's on Gumtree now. No Sansamp however.

I doubt he cares to be honest, but he's terrified that Priti will shout at him if anything is done to allow freer movement.

Can't say for sure but given the prices you see on Reverb they would probably at least hold their value - from that point of view they're a better bet than Ritter, Alembic, Smith, Fodera and MTD.

Nice idea but not true. 90 days in 180 is the rule for the whole Schengen area. If you tried to do that you would be deported. The only places you could try that are by going from a non-Schengen EU country to a Schengen one; Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Cyprus may allow entry even if you have just spent 90 days in the Schengen area. Apparently this loophole may not last long as these countries are looking to join the Schengen area. People in the UK (not singling you out - and certainly not looking to criticise as it's not surprising - British passports have generally given lots of visa free options) generally don't have much of an idea of visas, work permits and residency. I think for a lot of people the idea of getting a visa is as easy as turning up in Turkey or Thailand and getting your visa on the spot. Lots of people also think the 90 day visa run - popping over the border then popping back, as you sort of suggested above, is an option. It's generally always been illegal, but a lot of poorer countries would turn a blind eye as they liked the idea of westerners bringing hard currency into the country. Believe me, it will not work in a lot of places any more, and to try to actually get residency in countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, and now the EU, is a complex, drawn out, expensive process with no guarantee of success at the end.

Basically the ETIAS will not provide any more flexibility/freedom for Brits visiting the EU.

I don't think anyone was saying that UK musicians would be barred from Europe, but that it would harder and in some cases not financially viable for tours to take place. Also, no mention of the carnet/VAT issue which is separate to visas/work permits entirely. The ETIAS is not a replacement for a Schengen visa. It's the EU's version of the current US ESTA - basically a visa waiver for tourist travel of 90 days and under. The ETIAS will only operate for countries which currently have 90 day visa free travel to the EU, countries like USA, Australia, Canada, NZ, Ukraine, and now UK. Countries which currently need a Schengen visa to visit the EU (China, Russia, pretty much all of Africa and Asia) will still need to apply for a Schengen visa. Any UK national who wants to work, study or live for longer than 90 days in an EU country will still need to apply for a visa (I may be wrong but I don't think this would be a Schengen visa - if you applied to work or live in France for example, you would get a French visa/work permit which would only allow you to work in France, not any of the other Schengen countries).

I'm sure that the visa would be available to Brits, but they have to be applied for, which would probably require the venues to issue invitation letters, and the applicants to show proof of savings. Also, they may only be issued for a certain country, which wouldn't help with multi-country tours (I may be wrong about this). Plus, I don't think this would solve the carnet issue. In the end, the hassle and cost of getting a visa will probably make lots of tours unviable; visas are available to tour the States and Canada but you don't see many smaller bands going over there.

Good points - light swamp ash is more likely to sound like alder whereas heavier northern ash has a brighter harsher tone. I agree with some of what BigRedX says - predicting sound based on body wood selection is nowhere near an exact science and it is just one part of the puzzle. In my opinion neck materials, and pickup type and location have a greater influence on sound. Then you also have nut, fret and bridge type/materials to consider. However, if the pickups/electronics have sufficient clarity, I'm sure that body material will make a difference, although it's debatable whether this is more to do with density/weight than the actual species. I n some cases I'm sure it makes little to no difference; a short scale mudbucker-equipped EB0 could have a brass nut, badass bridge, heavy ash body and ebony fretboard and would still sound like mud.

For some people none at all. Others may prefer the way one or the other looks. There will also be a slight difference with regard to sound. Of course, this is only one variable and there are a whole host of others, but you don't have to be so dismissive of it.

If it's Japanese, it's probably their local type of ash, which is called 'Sen' apparently. Pretty sure it's not alder.

Yes - I wanted to say this too. Marcus may have a Sadowsky preamp in his bass now (if he still actually uses it now he's the Sire guy) but for most of his career the preamp in question was the Bartolini TCT. This was a forerunner to the NTMB and is simpler but will get the tone. Having said that I also think options like the East or the Pope Flexcore would be great - both are very transparent, have excellent options for flexibility/customization, and importantly have a passive tone which the Bartolini doesn't. Pickup wise I'd say the Aguilar or Seymour Duncan 5 string jazz pickups (it is a five string, right?) with '70s winds would be the ones to go for. Stay clear of anything overwound (I think a lot of Fralins fall into this category) or humcancelling.

Keep it as it is. Also, if you do it in green, then technically, from a vintage point of view, the tort guard will be incorrect. It was only sunburst, shell pink and olympic white that came with tort pickguards back then, so although I'm sure it would look good it in green, it wouldn't look like it did when it left the factory.

Yes, I saw it was a '62 so the unpainted headstock would be normal for that year. Flea's shell pink Jazz is an authentic custom colour and also doesn't have the matching headstock.